An Introduction to Sales Intelligence

After the introduction of the World Wide Web in the early 1990’s, information became a very powerful tool. Furthermore, data became a sought after commodity with its increased importance highlighted for various industries. The importance of data has continued to grow since. Amongst the businesses with maximum impact post the introduction of the revolutionizing internet technology was sales. The availability and access to credible data became the deciding factor for salespeople. Thus, the age of the sales intelligence began.

Today, salespeople have to approach potential buyers in a more intelligent and personalized way in order to stay relevant. The growth of internet technology has forced salespeople to provide value beyond what buyers could find online. They need to understand everything about their prospects, including their industry, pain points and company dynamics. At the same time,they need tooffer an intelligent solution that could solve their problems.

What is Sales Intelligence?

Sales intelligence may be defined as any piece of information or technology that assists and empowers sales employees in the process of discovering prospects, converting prospects into clients and retaining those clients. Put simply, sales intelligence makes effective use of data through the process of discovering, connecting and analyzing to provide an intelligent business solution for clients.

Sales intelligence helps salespeople find potential customers or buyers by leading them to the right prospects who are ready to buy. It helps sales team with in-depth profiles of the prospects including their social profiles, contact info, industry type, recent funding, employee numbers etc. In addition, sales intelligence provides better chances to liaise with prospects.

Sales intelligence provides salespeople the information they need to turn prospects into clients. An Aberdeen group research entitled “Inside Sales Enablement: Let Them Drink Coffee!”, showed that users of sales intelligence achieved 56% better lead that non-users. It is definitely a stat salesperson ought not to ignore.

The infographic below is a compilation of few of the current stats and in-depth information on sales intelligence.